Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Paco Sánchez
Michio
Bodega Los Apóstoles. 1900h
 Most of the people who take the dance courses that form part of the Festival de Jerez are from abroad, and the organizers of the event like to give an international touch to the program.At mid-afternoon Tuesday, at the Bodega de los Apóstoles, and within the series devoted to guitar, it was Michio’s turn, a 36-year-old German with oriental roots.
The Michio Quartet is made up of the lead musician’s flamenco guitar, Tom Auffarth’s bass, Jan Zimmerman’s percussion and the shakuhachi (a wind instrument similar to a recorder) of Tony Clark.What is touted as “world flamenco”, turns out to be, for all practical purposes, a rather faithful copy of Paco de Lucía’s music from an earlier era. But with a program of contemporary compositions, both with the quartet and solo, and despite imitating even the maestro’s gestures, Michio didn’t make the technical level, or anything remotely similar. Forty years ago even the great Sabicas might have had some slight imperfections, but nowadays, no professional guitarist can afford to commit the kind of technical errors that abound in playing of Michio, who may have been suffering an attack of nerves.
Compañía Mercedes Ruiz “Juncá”
Teatro Villamarta. 2100h
Dance: Mercedes Ruiz, Nano, Carlos Carbonell.Cante: David Lagos, David Palomar, Londro, Jesús Méndez. Guitar: Santiago Lara, Javier Ibañez. Piano: Jesús Lavilla. Percussion: Perico Navarro.
Wouldn’t you know.... After twelve days of the most important flamenco dance festival in the world, and a dizzying assortment of shows, some great, some less than great, produced with or without public funding, some original, some hackneyed, along comes this girl from San Miguel, just a couple of blocks away from the Teatro Villamarta, to pay tribute to the forms of flamenco and demonstrate how much can be sqeezed out of them with tender loving care.
It’s no longer necessary to cite the prizes at Córdoba or the Bienal of Sevilla, or her vast work experience.At 27, Mercedes Ruiz is a seasoned veteran, and with this work she has demonstrated her ability to navegate the demands of a big stage.
Mercedes, in gleaming white satin, receives a warm ovation when the curtain goes up. Many locals have turned up to see this favorite flamenco daughter.She opens with bulerías, with the two male dancers, and the recorded voice of Paquera is enough to set the ambience and trigger another round of applause.The admirable quartet of young singers – David Lagos, David Palomar, Londro y Jesús Méndez – are mutually complementary, and they even singer together in harmony, a dubious fad that seems destined to stay.
Mercedes, in dark olive green velvet, takes inspiration from the singers’ martinete and debla, drawing silhouettes of Carmen Amaya, generously displaying flamenco elegance, subtlety and the extreme love she feels for everything she does.
Mercedes, wrapped in a peach-colored shawl, dances her own fantasy to the malagueñas of Chacón (it’s all about San Miguel).The costume changes are painless thanks to the elongated guitar and singing introductions that eliminate the need for filler numbers, and it all flows naturally.David Lagos, one of Jerez’ natural resources, and greatly undervalued, sings fandangos del Gloria without accompaniment, and again the transition to soleá is seamless for the male dancers.Bulería por soleá leads to a pre fiesta finale – but the show isn’t over yet – and the singers take turns offering a wide variety of styles.
Mercedes, in vibrant red, dances to piano with the recorded voice of Lola Flores reciting, and Palomar sings a Caracol-style zambra.Here in Jerez they take la Faraona seriously, and it’s sheer nostalgia.
Mercedes, in basic black, for her main dance, soleá, with the altered tuning guitarist Santiago Lara manages so well.The dancer’s extremely slender frame both permits, and forces her to seek different forms in her excursion through the dramatically slowed-down tempo.She defines subtlety, possibly the most precise (and difficult) way of expressing compás.The bulerías finale is the end of the show, and once again the voice of Paquera interrupts and triggers stong emotions.
A beautiful show, with just the right amount of staging, the minimum, to transfer classic flamenco to a large venue. Authenticity, respect, intelligence, sensitivity, vitality and the complete absence of superficialty, reminding us that flamenco is more important than any of its interpreters.
Estévez / Paños Dospormedio & Cía “Muñecas”
Sala La Compañía. 2400h
Dance: Rafael Estévez, Nani Paños, Gala Vivancos, Raquel Lamadrid, Cristina Gómez, Álvaro Paños. Pianist: Edith Peña. Music: Ramón Montoya, Niña de los Peines, Granados, Lecuona, Bola de Nieve, Alberto Iglesias, Shigeru Umebayahasi, Nguyên Lê, Padre Antonio Soler
The Sala La Compañía saw the smallest audience for the most surprising show so far in the festival. It would take many words to accurately describe the work of this small company, because it’s so original, stylized and novel that standard phrases fall short. So let’s do an impressionistic tour... which is essentially what the members offer via their performances:
Rigid puppet movements – the work is titled “Dolls” – relieved by fluid moments of great beauty based on classic and semi-classic Spanish dance, polished technique, innocence and sincerity, a fun wardrobe that borders on quirky, in the best sense of the word, inspired flashes of pantomime, a dizzying variety of music, from Padre Soler to Pastora’s sevillanas, a ‘danza mora’ performed by Estévez that struts the latest “Galvanic” movements (that makes two dancers in two days, it looks like Israel isn’t so scary after all), an aesthetic of perfection and geometry, extraordinary professional capacity and enough self-confidence to make fun of themselves at any moment.
We’ve already seen the two lead dancers, Rafael Estévez and Nani Paños, independently in other groups. Lucky for all of us they decided to put this company together to let their imagination, capacity and talent go full throttle. Here’s hoping they’ll be adequately announced next time, this is too good to keep under wraps.
All information:
|
mapa web 
cesta
ayuda 
